Please consider contributing what you can to help Aila cover their medical bill from a recent ER visit. On December 12, Aila had a medical emergency that landed them in the ER. Without having medical insurance at the time, the ambulance, care, and unexplained ancillary fees amounted to a whopping $1,941 medical bill. For a full-time grad student and worker without insurance, this price is insurmountable. Although Aila contacted a patient advocate to try to explain their situation and negotiate down the cost, DMC was unwilling to work with them. So now we’re turning to the layperson’s medical insurance—that is the friends and loved ones. My hope is that if we each give just what we can spare, we’ll be able to help Aila cover this bill and focus on further recovery!

A note to end on is that I hope we can all lean on each other like this when systems fail us and situations become impossible. When it eventually becomes each of our turn to go through it, I hope we can all become the layperson’s insurance. Showing up in the small and unique ways that we can!